What's the Difference between Syrah, Shiraz and Petite Sirah? 2017 Wine Style Awards - The Best Wines Of The Year View all winners What's the Difference between Syrah, Shiraz and Petite Sirah? Syrah. Shiraz. Petite Sirah. These wines sound similar and in result, leave people confused what's the difference between the three of them. - Syrah and Shiraz are the exact same grape, much like Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are also the same grape. So whether you're drinking a wine that says Syrah or a wine that says Shiraz, the wine is made from the same grape. The French call the grape Syrah, while Australians call the grape Shiraz. If your label says Shiraz, there's a good chance it's from Australia. The rest of the world tends to follow the French and call the grape Syrah, but this is not a strict rule. Syrah is pronounced sih-RAH. Shiraz is pronounced sher-AS (rhymes with jazz). Over time, however, Syrah and Shiraz have taken on meaning beyond preference of name.

Australians like to make big jammy wines from this grape, and wines named Shiraz tend to be in this style. The French make less fruit-forward wines in general, so wines named Syrah tend to be more restraint than Shiraz. This is a general rule of thumb, but not always the case. Keep in mind that although Shiraz and Syrah can be different stylistically, they are still the same grape. Petite Sirah , on the other hand, is an entirely different grape than Syrah/Shiraz, although it sometimes gets confused because Sirah is pronounced the same as Syrah. Elsewhere in the world this grape is called Durif. Petite Sirah wines are big and inky with tons of dark fruit flavors. Don't make the mistake that this grape is in any way related to Syrah/Shiraz, as people sometimes do. In short: Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, both used depending on the brand/winemaker preference. Petite Sirah is a different grape and has no relation to Syrah and Shiraz. - What's the Difference between Syrah, Shiraz and Petite Sirah?

GT Wine Blog by Dirk Vermeersch What’s the Difference between Syrah, Shiraz and Petite Sirah? Syrah. Shiraz. Petite Sirah. These wines sound similar and in result, leave people confused what’s the difference between the three of them. Syrah and Shiraz are the exact same grape, much like Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are also the same grape. So whether you’re drinking a wine that says Syrah or a wine that says Shiraz, the wine is made from the same grape. The French call the grape Syrah, while Australians call the grape Shiraz. If your label says Shiraz, there’s a good chance it’s from Australia. The rest of the world tends to follow the French and call the grape Syrah, but this is not a strict rule. Syrah is pronounced sih-RAH. Shiraz is pronounced sher-AS (rhymes with jazz). Over time, however, Syrah and Shiraz have taken on meaning beyond preference of name. Australians like to make big jammy wines from this grape, and wines named Shiraz tend to be in this style.

The French make less fruit-forward wines in general, so wines named Syrah tend to be more restraint than Shiraz. This is a general rule of thumb, but not always the case. Keep in mind that although Shiraz and Syrah can be different stylistically, they are still the same grape. Petite Sirah , on the other hand, is an entirely different grape than Syrah/Shiraz, although it sometimes gets confused because Sirah is pronounced the same as Syrah. Elsewhere in the world this grape is called Durif. Petite Sirah wines are big and inky with tons of dark fruit flavors. Don’t make the mistake that this grape is in any way related to Syrah/Shiraz, as people sometimes do. In short: Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, both used depending on the brand/winemaker preference. Petite Sirah is a different grape and has no relation to Syrah and Shiraz. VIVINO SEPTEMBER 2015 Shiraz Grapes | Types of Wine Types Of Wine Tweet The Shiraz grape boasts a storied history — and some of it may even be true!

The legend claims that the grape originated in exotic Persia and was spirited away by a passionate French knight. While this is probably wishful thinking, there”s no doubt that Shiraz grapes have gone on to achieve cult status in Australia. The fruit, known as the Syrah grape in Europe, is also quite important in French wine-making. The Tangled History of the Syrah-Shiraz Grape First, to cut through the confusion, Syrah and Shiraz wines are essentially the same, with the former produced in France”s famed Rhone Valley and the latter from various regions of Australia. All contain the same variety of grape. But one sound-alike which doesn”t belong in the Syrah-Shiraz family is the California-produced Petite Sirah, which comes from an entirely different grape. Wine history buffs may be interested in knowing that the reason the names are so similar is because when a French breeder sent a mildew-resistant variety of grape to the United States in the 1880s, California growers somehow believed it to be a Syrah variety.

It took 100 years for the mistake to be corrected with a simple ”i.” Speaking of naming confusion, if you”re wondering why a wine from Down Under sports a name straight out of the Arabian Nights, there”s a logical hypothesis, if not solid proof. The city of Shiraz, in what is now modern Iran, boasted some of the earliest vineyards known to man. If the story of the French knight is credible, the Shiraz grape arrived in France in the Middle Ages. Certainly the grape used for the Hermitage wines are the same grape used for the French Syrah and Aussie Shiraz wines, but so far no concrete evidence exists that they bear any genetic link to the Persian Shiraz grapes. Although the red grape originated in the Rhone valley, Australians proudly lay claim as the primary producers of the wines most often called Shiraz. (Its growing popularity, however, has spawned American versions of the wine.) Generally believed to have reached Australia around the 1830s, the Shiraz is now the country”s most-grown wine grape. Syrah vs.

Shiraz: The Varieties If you”re confronted by a choice between French Syrah and Australian Shiraz, some rules of thumb do exist. Shiraz often finds itself labeled as younger, less subtle, higher in alcohol and sweeter than the more smoky, subtle and aged Syrahs from the Rhone Valley. But that”s not a hard and fast rule, since Australian vintners increasingly produce more high-quality Shiraz wine. Your best bet may be to ask your wine merchant which of the wines fall into the fruitier, lighter category, and which are aged, heavier on the tannins and spicier. In addition, Australian winemakers prefer using American oak barrels rather than French, which lends a hint of spice and vanilla to their wines. The Shiraz grape, as opposed to the wine that takes its name from it, is remarkably versatile. Is Shiraz wine really from Iran? | Contact Us Is Shiraz wine really from Iran? Syrah, Sirah or Shiraz and are all names used for wine made from grapes purported by some to have originated in ancient Shiraz. But, in reality, the grape is French and the name is an Australian affectation.

The grape is called Syrah in the US, France and many countries. In Australia it is called Shiraz, where it is considered the finest red wine grown there. Shiraz is certainly the most widely planted red grape in Australia. Now that Shiraz has become well known and popular, some wineries in the US who are making an “Australian style wine” with this grape are calling their wines Shiraz as well. The Shiraz grape was once thought to have originated in Persia, but recent research indicates the grape is a native of the Rhone Valley, in France. Yes, Shiraz was a city that made wine for centuries—until the 1979 revolution. Shiraz is known for its spicy blackberry, plum, and peppery flavors. Often there are additional notes of licorice, bitter chocolate and mocha. Sirah is more commonly used as the name for the wine of that grape in the United States. But do not confuse Sirah with Petite Sirah, also known as Durif in Australia and France. That is a wine of a different grape. Dr.

Francois Durif was a botanist and vineyardist in the Rhone Valley during the late 1800s and a strong proponent of the fruity quite tannic grape named after him. While bearing characteristics of its cousin sirah or syrah, its popularity was hampered by susceptibility to mould and other vineyard diseases. Visitors from California’s nascent wine industry brought rootstock back with them and found it successful in their drier hotter vineyards. Having the appearance of syrah but with smaller berries, they called it petite syrah, later swapping the “y” for “i” for easier distinction. Australians can lay claim to spreading the use of the name Shiraz for the grape called syrah in France and much of the rest of the world. As their wine exports grew in the 1980s, Aussies needed to eliminate consumer confusion between their syrah and those of other countries, so they decided on Shiraz as the best option. Leave a Reply France vs. Australia: Syrah/Shiraz Start Here France vs. Australia: Syrah/Shiraz In the world of wine, nothing is ever easy.

One vineyard produces a wine from a certain varietal that tastes a certain way, and their next door neighbour will use the same varietal and the wine will be entirely different. One single grape can have a dozen synonyms or more. It can be grown in France, Canada, Chile, or Australia, each making a different tasting wine. Syrah is one of those grapes. French Syrah For some people, they would be surprised to know that France is the actual homeland of the Syrah grape. For others, they would be surprised to know that France grows Syrah at all. To make matters worse, when they do make Syrah in France, they hardly ever explicitly say it! Typical French, never labeling their bottles with what’s inside it. Syrah originates from the Rhone Valley in France, and it is actually widely planted all over Southern France . Basically, if you are in Mediterranean France, you can bet there is some Syrah kicking around. Although planted all over from Roussillon to Provence, Syrah really shines in the Northern Rhone, where it is made into single varietal wines. Some particularly well known appellations include St. Joseph, Cornas, Hermitage, and Crozes Hermitage.

Here, Syrah makes very meaty and spicy wines that can age for years. In fact, if you have ever had a proper French Syrah, you would be surprised to know it has anything in common with the jammy Australian Shiraz so predominant these days. In the Rhone Valley, the climate is not quite as warm as in Australian, and many winemakers prefer to pick their grapes earlier, so the flavours are less ripe. This, in addition to the unique soils and surroundings, makes a wine that is medium bodied, tannic, high acid, and dominated by notes of raspberry, black fruits, and the unmistakable taste of bacon and bacon fat. In fact, some versions can be very Pinot Noir like. Moving to the Southern Rhone valley, where blends are the name of the game, Syrah takes a backseat to Grenache and Mourvedre. Because they aren’t single varietal wines, I won’t go into too much detail, but the style of the Southern Rhone is quite like the rest of Syrah based wines from Mediterranean France. These wines are higher alcohol, riper, and showing more red fruit flavours, as opposed to dark fruit.

These wines are very nice with game such as venison, or with very strong flavoured dishes like peppercorn crusted steaks, duck breast, or other grilled and smoky meat. Australian Shiraz Meanwhile, in Australia, they prefer to call their grape Shiraz. This is a reference to the Persian city of Shirazi, where are one point, many believed Syrah came from. The myth had already been disproven, but the Australians were keen on making this old French grape into a style all their own. So, they dubbed it Shiraz, and the rest is history. Here in sunny sun baked Australia, all of the quality Shiraz is based in the south eastern corner. Some well known areas include Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, and McLaren Vale. Because of the searing heat, and many New World winemaker’s preference for big, ripe and rich wines, the Shiraz here will be extremely different than in France. You can expect very full bodied and high alcohol wines, with dark fruit, gasoline, and eucalyptus flavours. In fact, one of the tell tale signs of an Australian red wine (often Shiraz or Cabernet) is that eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus trees are everywhere in this part of Australia, with many of them being right next to some of these vineyards. Because eucalyptus leaves contain essential oils, these become airborne and find their way into the wines. This is a very unique characteristic, and loved by many. Even though France does not have this, resinous and oily herbs are found in the south and many Mediterranean French wines have this aroma in them. If you have ever heard the term “garrigue” that is the wild herbal shrubs found all over the south, containing everything from rosemary and thyme to lavender. As for the eucalyptus infused Shiraz of Australia, enjoy them with hearty steaks, grilled lamb, or gourmet burgers. The Verdict Well, which one sounds better to you? Although made from the same grape, these two wines are wildly different. Both are delicious, and have their own place at the dinner table. If you can’t decide, grab a bottle of each and try them side by side to get a good idea of the differences between them. In fact, you can even buy “Syrah” and “Shiraz” styles from all over.

Chile makes a fantastic Syrah for about half the price of the French ones, and South Africa has been known to make rich and jammy Shiraz styled wines. Whatever your preference, you are sure to find something you like, armed with a little knowledge and open mind. Syrah and Shiraz Grapes – Climatic, Winery Influence, Most important regions – WSET Level 2 - Decanter Decanter Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape: Syrah is the French term while Australians say Shiraz. An inauspicious start to my education on this black variety. Mercifully, it is similar grape to Cabernet Sauvignon (small and thick-skinned) so I had a modicum of prior knowledge to keep me from total ignorance. Remembering Shiraz wines I had had before, I was fairly certain flavours would include black fruits and hints of peppery spice. As a rank amateur, it is gratifying when you make a judgement call which turns out to be partly true. The Grape Syrah wines are produced in moderate and hot climates, their thick skins requiring a healthy dose of sun to allow them to ripen. They tend to be deeply coloured, with medium-high tannin and medium acidity levels.

The styles vary depending on the climate, but wines are normally full-bodied, with black fruits flavours. In moderate climates, you may encounter peppery spice, herbaceousness and smokey characteristics. In hotter regions, you will have riper, even jammy, fruit flavours with sweet spice (liquorice) and dark chocolate shining through. Oak treatment, either through barrel ageing or the use of chips/staves, is common and adds toast, smoke, vanilla and coconut flavours. Erica, my Syrah teacher, puts it succinctly: ‘Syrah likes oak.’ While using Syrah alone can produce a fulfilling and satisfying wine, it is regularly blended with the grape Grenache to give it structure: boosting colour, tannin and acidity, and adding dark fruit character to the red berry notes of Grenache. Regions The Northern region of France’s Rhône Valley is Syrah’s historical and classical home, and we were told to think of the area as “100 per cent Syrah”, despite other grapes growing there. Syrah’s vertiginous sites, which peer over the Rhône river, make for difficult harvesting and expensive production.

Thus, winemakers concentrate on producing top-quality wines – to make it ‘worth their while’, as Erica says. Côte Rôtie and Hermitage are the premium appellations of the region, producing some extremely rare and expensive wines. For those with shallower pockets, the larger, flatter and more affordable appellation is Crozes-Hermitage. The trade-off in price, is that the wines will probably have less body and intensity, and probably less or old oak treatment. Top 10 Australia Shiraz Moving to the other side of the world, Australia is lauded for its Shiraz (Australian terminology is appropriate now, I think). The grape is grown all over the country and consequently, wines come in a variety of styles. A Shiraz produced with grapes from hot climates, is perhaps the best-known of these styles. The Barossa and Hunter Valleys have such climates, and the former is world-renowned for its Shiraz. The wines have pronounced black fruit flavours of blackberry/plum, complemented by sweet spice and dark chocolate. Oak treatment is marked in these wines, adding essences of vanilla, smoke and coconut. In the country’s more moderate regions, the best wines can resemble those of the Rhône.

Best New World Syrah for Rhône lovers While France and Australia remain the Syrah/Shiraz big players, there are green shoots of promise from other significant wine producing countries such as South Africa and Chile; adding to the global presence of this exciting grape. During my lesson, we tasted a Northern Rhône Côte Rôtie and a Barossa Valley Shiraz. Both were complex and full-bodied, with pronounced flavours redolent of the regions in which they came from. While I leant towards the Côte Rôtie – its tannin and acidity balance, black cherry, black pepper, vanilla, and bizarre, but weirdly appropriate, mint flavours completely enveloping my senses – Syrah’s pure versatility ensures it has enough to appease all tastes. Interested in studying for a WSET qualification like John? Learn more here. Video: Barossa: The Best Australian Shiraz? Not long ago, someone asked me on Twitter whether it was possible for a wine to make your mouth taste like Robitussin in the morning.

I replied that it wasn’t a side effect I’d ever encountered myself—though that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen—at which point an acquaintance from the wine business took the opportunity to jump in and quip, “Was it Aussie Shiraz? Those are 65 percent cough syrup.” Speaking for the Australians, ouch. But unfortunately, that comment is representative of what a lot of wine lovers in the US think, which is that Australian Shiraz is big, bold, even massive; high in alcohol; and full of superripe, lip-smackingly sweet fruit. Now, admittedly, my tweeting friend had a point. There is a lot of fruity, anonymous Shiraz out there (Shiraz, by the way, is the same grape as Syrah; the Australians simply call it by another name, and they have since they first planted it in the early 1800s). But there’s a lot of simple, anonymous California Cabernet, Argentinean Malbec and, yes, French Syrah on store shelves, too. Wines like these are the frozen pizzas of the wine world. They’re supermarket commodities, made at industrial wineries, whose character varies minimally from vintage to vintage, if at all.

And they express terroir—the specific place they’re from, the nuances of region and vineyard—about as much as a Miller Lite does. But that’s fine. I don’t expect terroir from Miller Lite, and I don’t expect it from million-case-production wines (or frozen pizzas) either. The real problem is this: Why does everyone accept the idea that there are Napa Valley Cabernets, for example, that bear no resemblance to Two-Buck Chuck, but also assume that all Australian Shiraz, even the country’s top wines, must taste like blackberry jam? “I really don’t know,” said Peter Fraser, the winemaker for Australia’s Yangarra Estate Vineyard, when I asked him that question. He was in the US on a sales trip, and he had definitely run into the Shiraz-is-jam attitude. At several places around the country, buyers had made it clear to Fraser that they had no interest whatsoever in any Australian Shiraz, from anyone. (Imagine a sommelier saying the same thing about Rhône Valley Syrah—pretty near unthinkable.) I felt sympathy for Fraser, especially after tasting his wines.

The 2009 Yangarra Estate McLaren Vale Shiraz ($25), for example, has an alluring aroma of dried wild herbs, and while the wine does suggest blackberries, its fruit is spicy and tangy, not sweet and enveloping. The wine is subtle; it doesn’t hit you over the head with a club. And that’s exactly what Fraser is after. “I make bright, vibrant wines,” he told me. “I stick to what I think our vineyard does well, which is more finesse than power.” That said, there are reasons people associate Shiraz with ripeness and power. For much of the past decade, the Australian wines that received the most acclaim and highest point scores from American critics were predominantly supercharged, high-alcohol, powerhouse wines. On top of that, Yellow Tail Shiraz—which represents almost 50 percent of the Shiraz sold here—is very much made in a plush, fruity, no-sharp-edges style. Finally, the warm-to-hot climate of the country’s most famous region (and still the region that exports the most wine to the United States), the Barossa Valley, naturally makes for substantial, ripe Shiraz.

But Australia is enormous—you can fit France into the place 14 times over and still have room for most of Belgium. The Barossa is heavily identified with Shiraz, but the truth is that Shiraz is grown all over Australia, and there are dozens of other wine regions, each with distinctive soils and climates, producing superb versions of this wine. Not that this should come as a surprise: Shiraz, or Syrah, is one of the world’s greatest grapes. Originally from France, it produces wines as vaunted as the great Hermitages of the northern Rhône, as well as eminently drinkable, more affordable reds in wine regions around the world. More than that, Shiraz also has the capacity to vividly express the character of where it’s grown. Consider the Yarra Valley, where winemaker Luke Lambert’s eponymous winery is based. The Yarra has temperatures more like Bordeaux than Barossa. By nature, the Shiraz produced here tends to be taut and savory, driven more by spice, smoke and earthy depth than by fruit (because the climate is cool, it tends to have moderate alcohol levels, too).

Lambert’s ambition is to highlight that character rather than obscure it, and he has succeeded with wines like the impressive 2010 Luke Lambert Yarra Valley Syrah ($70), a Shiraz that to me tastes like Australia filtered through France’s Côte-Rôtie—possibly why Lambert chooses to use the grape’s European name. “When I first got into wine and fell in love with rustic Syrah and Nebbiolo,” Lambert says, “it was a real eye-opener to find this ‘other’ world that wasn’t based around fruit sweetness and oak.” Seven years ago, when he released his first vintage, “There were plenty of people who thought concentration, power and oak were what Shiraz should be, and they hated my wines.” That’s much less the case now, “and there’s a push toward exploring single vineyards and letting the site sing—which is very important if Australia is going to show the breadth of its terroirs.” My advice to anyone who wants to experience the range of Australian Shiraz is simple: Skip the frozen-pizza aisle.

You will have to spend slightly more money—affordable, regionally designated Shirazes sell for around $15 to $20 a bottle, rather than $8 to $10—but there’s a payoff in terms of pleasure, just as there is when you have a really great pizza, made by an actual human, using top-quality ingredients. To make things easy, you can separate Australia’s wine regions into roughly three categories: cool, warmer and warmest. Generally speaking, the wines from cool regions (the Yarra Valley, Coonawarra, the Great Southern) will have more red fruit, higher acidity, lower alcohol, and herbal or white pepper notes. Those from the middle range (Eden Valley, Margaret River, Clare Valley) will have both red and black fruit, more substance and often notes of licorice or black pepper. Finally, the warmest regions (Barossa Valley, Heathcote, most of McLaren Vale) will be the wines most along familiar lines: big, rich reds with lots of ripe blackberry and black-cherry fruit. Of course, whenever you make generalizations about wine, there’s going to be some bottle out there in the world waiting to prove you wrong.

Not long ago, I had the good fortune to attend a six-decade retrospective tasting of Penfolds Grange. Grange is unquestionably Australia’s most famous Shiraz (and one of its most expensive, at $500 a bottle). It’s also arguably Australia’s greatest Shiraz, a claim fully justified by this tasting, where even the 1952 Grange—the first official vintage—was amazingly alive, full of gorgeous dried-currant fruit, complex, creamy and seductive. At 60 years of age, there are only a handful of wines in the world that could not only survive, but continue to unfold so effortlessly as you tasted them. Yet, contrary to my belief that the best Australian Shirazes truly express a specific region or vineyard, Grange is a blend. And not just a blend of different regions (mostly the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale), but of different grapes, too (there’s often a little Cabernet in it). What can you do? At least I can be consistent about one thing: Australia’s greatest Shiraz does not taste even remotely like a big pot of blackberry jam.

Top 5 Shiraz Picks 2010 Elderton Estate Shiraz ($25) A benchmark Barossa producer, Elderton’s wines are powerful but also balanced. 2009 D’Arenberg The Laughing Magpie ($29) A small amount of Viognier lifts the aromas of this plush McLaren Vale Shiraz. 2009 Plantagenet Mount Barker Shiraz ($29) White pepper notes mark this great Shiraz from Western Australia. 2008 Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz ($33) The breezy Hilltops region near Canberra produces this savory red. 2010 Glaetzer Bishop Shiraz ($36) Though made in a superrich style, this Barossa wine also has nuance and depth. Video: The Best Australian Shiraz? Advertisement Wine Picks Infographics Apps & Quizzes Etiquette DIY Travel Longform Join Learn About Syrah & Shiraz (They’re The Same!) Let’s clear something up right away: Syrah and Shiraz are the exact same wine.

When Syrah (Sih-Rah) arrived in Australia from its birthplace in France, Australian winemakers took to calling it Shiraz (Shi – RAZ), instead of the grape’s original name, Syrah. We like to chalk this renaming up to the Australian accent and their penchant for making many common words more fun to say, like how they call a barbecue a barbie . No matter what you call it, Syrah is one of the darkest red wines on the market. Darker than Cabernet Sauvignon , this wine is so dark that if you were to hold a glass of the wine up to the light, you’d have a very hard time seeing through it. Syrah is a wine with a large amount of mouth-drying tannins , and it is known to be full-bodied, which means it feels heavy in your mouth ; the wine features flavors such as berries, pepper, tobacco, and even smoked meat. While Syrah is the perfect accompaniment to meat, it really goes well with anything, so drink it with any food you enjoy eating.

A great bonus to drinking Syrah is that due to the high level of tannins present in the wine, Syrah has one of the highest level of health-benefiting antioxidants. Syrah’s rise to prominence attracted several winemakers from other regions of the world to visit the Rhone and see how the wine was made, including James Busby, widely regarded as the father of the Australian wine industry There are several myths associated with the emergence of Syrah — one involves a Roman Emperor planting the grape in France in 280 A.D. and another involves a winemaker from Iran, where legend says the grape was actually born , bringing the vines with him to France in 600 B.C. where he settled in Marseilles. No matter how the grape actually arrived in France, suffice it to say, it has been there for a long time, and France is the country that made it famous. Syrah came to prominence in the eighteenth century in the Rhone Valley of France. While many other regions of the country were busy making blends containing several different red grapes, the Northern Rhone set upon creating a red wine solely from Syrah.

It was there in the town of Hermitage that Syrah became famous, and still today Syrah from this town fetches some of the highest prices in the world. Syrah’s rise to prominence attracted several winemakers from other regions of the world to visit the Rhone and see how the wine was made. Included in this group of international winemakers was James Busby, widely regarded as the father of the Australian wine industry, who in 1832 visited France and collected vine clippings of Syrah. When he brought the vines back to Australia, he discovered how well the plant performed and winemakers began planting it in large amounts. Today Shiraz is the most popular red wine in Australia, and it is thanks to the Australians that the red is so widely known by American drinkers. Although Syrah originated in France, Syrah wines from the region tend to be expensive when sold in the U.S. In contrast, due to the larger amount of land devoted to the grape in Australia, Australian wineries have been able to produce the wine much more affordably, and it is due to this that the name Shiraz has become even more widely known on the American market than the grape’s original name, Syrah.

Spread The Knowledge With Your Friends: Core Grapes & Wines SYRAH vs SHIRAZ | Grape Stains by Jimmy Grape Stains by Jimmy Posted by Jimmy Ioannidis on January 8, 2014 in Articles What’s the difference? Is there a difference? Traditionally, the French (Old World) call it Syrah, the Australians (New World) Shiraz. Although, this division has been blurred by globalism. Going back to the early 1800’s, Australian grape growers imported Syrah grapes from France (growing in the Rhone Valley since the Roman period), planted them widely, and started calling them Shiraz. It’s generally assumed that Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape – but growing in different soil and different climate, it’s believed to change slightly a bit by mutating in the past 200 years. Some people believed that the name Shiraz developed by the accented pronunciation of Syrah. Others believe that the name change was a strategic move credited to differentiate the Australians from the French. You can come to your own conclusions.

And now, some California producers are calling their Syrah wines Shiraz, to hint to the consumer that their wine is made in the New World fruit-forward style. Generally, only the Australians call their wines Shiraz, but non-Australian producers are using the name to define the style, as well as its marketability. Both Syrah and Shiraz are made in a wide range of styles, from fresh fruit and easy drinking, to highly concentrated and intense. Syrah has a reputation as a drier, more restrained wine while Shiraz is thought to be jammier and fruitier. Syrah’s are generally (slightly) leaner than the Aussie style, yet more complex (spice, cherry, leather, tar, smoke, cassis, plum, etc), earthy, lively (more acidity), tannic, and typically capable of short to long term bottle aging. Shiraz wines that are full bodied and rife with rich, ripe, and intense fruit flavours (plum, blackberry, cherry, jammy, etc) and hints of spice, and generally a touch more alcohol. These fruit driven wines are usually made in an easy drinking style and are good everyday wines.

And recently, you can throw Petite Sirah into the mix to confuse people even more. Petite Sirah is not Syrah at all, but in most cases a descendant of a minor Rhone grape called Durif. But when the two grapes became popular in California in the 1970s, many winemakers and consumers used the two names interchangeably. Until recently, with DNA testing, the two grapes properly understood to be separate varieties. Note: The facts for this article were culled from a variety of sources. Syrah | Wine grapes | JancisRobinson.com Syrah Syrah I wonder how many of the wine drinkers who lap up Australia's rich, sturdy Shirazes realise that they are made from the very same grape as some of France's finest, and rarest, reds, the twin jewels of the Rhône Valley, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie? The grape is known in the Rhône as Syrah and may well have been grown there since Roman times.

It is certainly well-adapted to the steep terraces by the side of the river Rhône around Ampuis for Côte Rôtie and Tain for Hermitage, in each case on vineyards carefully angled to make the most of the available sunshine. For this northern bit of the Rhône can be so much cooler than, for example, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 150 km (93 mi) to the south. Hermitage was such a famously majestic, robust wine in earlier centuries that it was sometimes used to strengthen the feeble ferments of Bordeaux, such wines being described as having been 'hermitagé'. This deep, dense, long-living wine is made exclusively from Syrah and, if labelled J L Chave, Paul Jaboulet Aîné La Chapelle or Chapoutier Le Pavillon, can easily age as long as a good classed growth bordeaux. The trademark flavour of French Syrah is black pepper. A good Hermitage certainly has this in spades, but can mature into something more redolent of leather and, in very ripe years, spice. Côte Rôtie is different again.

Traditionally it was the stereotypical female to Hermitage's very obvious masculinity - indeed a small proportion of heady white Viognier grapes were used to perfume and lighten the blend. Today, you can still find these delicate, very fine reds in Côte Rôtie (try to get your hands on a Gangloff bottle, for example), but the king of the appellation Marcel Guigal has distracted many of us from the original style. He worships oak and mass, so that his world-famous, fabulously-priced, single-vineyard Côte Rôties La Mouline, La Landonne and La Turque can be as intense or even more intense than many a Hermitage. The best-value French Syrah, by far, is a Crozes-Hermitage, from the outlying vineyards of Hermitage, made by one of the region's many ambitious producers. Graillot is an obvious example, although Pochon and Belle are also reliable. They make ultra-glossy, juicier, earlier-maturing cousins of Hermitage.

Less exciting examples of Syrah from the Rhône Valley and its fringes such as the Ardèche can be pale and thin and the appealing black-pepper scent is often replaced by the much less appealing smell of burning rubber. This may be because the vines are being over-produced or are simply too young. In the southern Rhône, around Châteauneuf-du-Pape in appellations such as Gigondas and Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages, Syrah plays an important though usually subordinate role, typically adding structure to the dominant Grenache grape and other local specialities such as Mourvèdre - for Syrah grapes are relatively small and high in colour and tannins. There are signs that Syrah is falling out of favour relative to Mourvèdre in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But Syrah's role in the vineyards just to the west of here can be glorious. Of all the so-called cépages améliorateurs (improving grape varieties) that have been encouraged in the Languedoc, Syrah has proved most at home.

In fact, unlike Cabernet and Merlot for example, it's allowed in to all the fine red appellations - the likes of Costières de Nîmes, Languedoc, Faugères, St-Chinian, Minervois, Corbières and Fitou - and accounts for an ever-increasing proportion of them, replacing tough old Carignan to make reds that are positively voluptuous - and by no means expensive. It seems particularly successful in Costières de Nîmes and in the higher vineyards of Pic St-Loup and La Livinière (these two villages within the Languedoc and Minervois appellations respectively). Apart from this great swathe of south-eastern France, Syrah's other important dominion is Australia, where it has been known as Shiraz for generations. Visitors from Tain l'Hermitage confirm that the vines are identical to the Syrah of the Rhône, but the wines certainly aren't. If black pepper is the French trademark, dark chocolate is that of Shiraz produced from one or, more often, some of Australia's hotter vineyards.

Barossa Valley Shiraz can be positively unctuous - so rich in fact that some producers deliberately add tannin to give the wines backbone. Many of these wines are very obviously inspired by the essence that is Australia's most famous wine, Penfolds Grange, an amazingly concentrated elixir put together from top lots of Shiraz grown in various locations in the state of South Australia. It can last for decades and commands prices easily as high as first growth bordeaux. Henschke is another infallible name for South Australian Shiraz, with their bottling from the antique Hill of Grace vineyard (not a hill at all in fact) rivalling Penfolds Grange in the auction room. The quality of Barossa Shiraz was responsible for the much-needed re-evaluation of this grape variety in Australia. (As recently as the 1980s it was so common than Australians couldn't believe it was worth half as much as fancy French Cabernet, a much more recent import.) Nowadays Shiraz is recognised as one of Australia's great wine assets, although to be really interesting it needs to come from a site with more character than the irrigated inland regions whose produce is typically labelled 'South Eastern Australia'.

McLaren Vale is on a roll with its warm, welcoming-yet-deep-flavoured Shiraz at the moment, and d'Arenberg makes some of the best-value. The cooler vineyards of the state of Victoria such as Mount Langi Ghiran and Craiglee make great wine that has some of the black pepper of good French Syrah with the weight of a South Australian Shiraz. In New South Wales, Shiraz was the red wine grape of the historic Hunter Valley where the wines were so strapping, and often so lacking in focus, that they inspired that memorable tasting term 'sweaty saddle'. There are still bottles hidden in ancient cellars attesting to the staying power of the wines that were then called Hunter 'Hermitage'. But what's this? Decided changes on the Syrah/Shiraz scene. Wines as good as those described above are, inevitably, inspiring ambitious wine producers around the world. There is feverish activity among California's so-called Rhône Rangers, with some fine Syrahs being produced by the likes of Qupé, Joseph Phelps and Jade Mountain.

In South Africa, Syrah has proved extremely adaptable with wines such as Stellenzicht, Simonsig and Saxenburg suggesting that, as in the Languedoc, the variety might well be better suited here than Cabernet Sauvignon. These producers generally label their wines Shiraz but some South African (and Australian) producers of particularly transparent, refreshing examples tend to label them Syrah. And we can now choose Syrahs from Spain (notably Marqués de Griñón), a raft of examples from Chile (where the variety was pioneered by Errázuriz), central Italy (L'Eremo from Isola e Olena and some other stunning examples), Portugal (Cortes de Cima), Washington state (Red Willow) and Switzerland (Germanier). The most common fault in early vintages of this grape is to let it get overripe, which it can do rapidly, producing rather sickly, flabby wine. But today we can choose from a wide variety of titillating examples from all over the world. Join and gain access to wine reviews and much more MOST POPULAR

Question: What is the French name for the grape that the Australians call Shiraz?
Answer: Syrah